Over the centuries, women artists have faced special obstacles in achieving successful careers and appropriate recognition for their work. There are a number of reasons for this. Without being exhaustive, these include:
-- the limitations on subject matter available to women arising from restrictions on their study of the human figure, or from confinement to the home;
-- lack of adequate (or any) facilities for pursuing an artistic education;
-- male appropriation of credit, particularly for a relative or partner’s work;
-- early death, particularly in childbirth;
-- lack of the financial independence which would give them freedom to indulge in serious artistic pursuits;
-- lack of practical spousal or family support
-- social constraints against women working for a living, engaging in social movements, or even being eccentric;
-- the patronising treatment of undeniable female talent as freakish;
-- critical attitudes adopted by many male artists and commentators against anything produced which did not fit within their personal or artistic world-view, or which was produced by those whom they preferred to think of as the weaker or less-motivated gender;
-- depression from all or any of the above.
For some women artists, a minority, these obstacles were able to be overcome, or had little significant effect. Rather, these artists’ obscurity arises from other occurrences, such as a small output, impoverishment or a change in artistic fashions.
In this series we deal with a variety of women artists for whom talent alone was not enough to achieve long-lasting fame. Their re-emergence has, in many cases, been inspired by a new generation of researchers, particularly over the last few decades.
The artists are:
~ the Scottish artist that went to Russia Christina Robertson
- the ill-fated 17th century Italian prodigy Arcangela Paladini
~ the multi-talented English painter/writer/futurist and horticulturist Jane Loudon
~ the 18th century French artist Marie-Gabrielle Capet
~ the long-forgotten 17th century artist Michaelina Wautier
~ the ultimate professional:19/20th century painter Thérèse Schwartze